The Alchemists of Loom (Loom Saga #1)(76)
“This whole time, he’s been working for the King. It’s been a ploy to get us to trust him. It’s just like last time. He came down and he’s convinced us that he can be trusted, never mind what his real motives are.”
“Ari, stop.” Florence grabbed her friend by both shoulders, which trembled slightly under her fingers—a feeling Florence had never felt from Ari before. Fear and rage mixed potently, bleeding into her veins.
She kept herself calm. It would do no good if Florence blindly agreed to what Ari was claiming. One of them had to keep her head and sort through this as logically as possible. Florence tightened her grip. “Arianna, take a deep breath and get a grip on yourself.”
“Flor, you have no idea—you, you bled so much for this man, you put yourself in a position of being forced to become a Chimera—” The word still brought ample shame to Arianna’s face. “And he was playing you all along.”
“I don’t believe you,” Florence declared. Her head was getting fuzzy from standing so long. She was practically bedridden all the time now from the effects of Dragon blood without being a proper Chimera. It had only taken one day on the airship for Florence to realize that Arianna had made the right decision in taking the risk, at least when it came to her own wellbeing. She would’ve never made it in a trek across Ter.0.
“You have no idea what he’s done. What he intends to do.”
“Then tell me.” Florence sat, finally. Her hands fell from Ari’s shoulders to grip the woman’s fingers. She pulled Ari down toward her. Arianna reluctantly obliged, falling onto the narrow bed they’d been sharing for the journey. “What happened that has you in such a state? You and he were fine over dinner.”
Better than fine, actually. It had been slow coming, but in the weeks they’d spent together, Arianna and the Dragon seemed to have found a kind of mutual peace. After the floating prison and the Underground, that peace blossomed into appreciation. Florence had watched it grow all along, two people determined to hate each other realizing just how much they could complement each other.
Florence knew why she liked Cvareh: He reminded her of Ari. Certainly, they weren’t identical. But they were both driven, both determined; they both set course for something only they could see on a distant shore. She suspected Ari saw much the same in the man, that he sparked memories within her. But now, those memories seemed to be rife with pain.
“He wants to see Loom forever under the thumb of the Dragon King. He wants to keep us under the Dragon’s control for eternity,” Arianna repeated her earlier words, unhelpfully.
“If you want me to believe you on this, Ari, you’ll have to give me some better proof,” Florence encouraged gently.
“My word isn’t good enough?”
Florence gave her an encouraging smile, and shook her head. “Not this time, I’m afraid. I know Cvareh. I’ve already formulated my own thoughts and opinions on him. This is not a story of times long gone that you recount for me and I must take at face value. This is a situation in which I have my own empirical evidence to support what I believe to be true. If you want me to change my mind, you must present new evidence.”
Arianna stared at her for a long moment. Something in Florence’s words had penetrated through the mindless aggravation and hurt. Ari shook her head, laughing bitterly.
“Since when did you become the scientist?”
“I have a good teacher,” she replied easily, nudging Ari with her shoulder. “Now, tell me what’s happened.”
The other woman sighed heavily, running her hands through her cotton-colored hair. Indecision didn’t fit Arianna well, and she struggled every second she spent thinking about Florence’s request. But finally, Ari stood, walking over to the slip of paper she’d discarded with such passion earlier.
Just looking at it brought a scowl back to Ari’s face. Florence had to brace herself once more for the torrent of emotions that ripped through Ari and broke over her shoulders.
“This. This is what he’s been struggling to deliver.”
Florence examined the paper closely, leaning forward to get a better look. Parts were done in pencil, and those had been smudged by Ari’s treatment. The darker lines done in ink over top persevered, however. It looked like some kind of pumping mechanism? Or perhaps an engine? It wasn’t something designed to explode, of that much she could be certain.
“What is it?” She failed to see how this tiny bit of a Rivet’s sketch had upset Ari so much—even if Ari, as a Rivet, could decipher its intention. It was next to useless in its current state. She knew schematics required dozens of drawings, often of the same thing, to make assembly and creation expressly clear.
“It’s a sketch detailing a part of the Philosopher’s Box.”
“What?” Florence had only heard of such a thing existing in theory.
It was regarded as a clever exercise for students of all ages. What if a perfect Chimera were possible? One who could possess all the powers of a Dragon and not become forsaken from the stress of the magic on their body? How would that change Loom? How would it make things different?
Most knew the answer: It would make everything different. With access to that much magic on Loom, they could create larger, more intricate machines without the need of backup mechanics to run them. They could successfully fly their own gliders up as high as Nova without losing control. They would need less food, so the Harvesters could spend more effort on deeper mining of rarer minerals. And they could stand a fighting chance against Dragons.